Elders (including the teaching elder often called the pastor) and deacons are the Spiritual leaders of the church. The elders lead the church in word ministries and the deacons lead the church in deed ministries. Even among the elders there is a division of labor between the teaching elder(s) and the ruling elders, but both groups of elders are Spiritual leaders who lead in word ministries.

Jesus was the perfect elder and deacon: He was "a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people" (Luke 24:19). His words interpreted his works. Both point to who He was and what He was doing. Our words and works also should point people to Jesus.

As a division of labor - elders focus on leading the church in word ministries and deacons focus on leading the church in deed ministries. But all members do both - all members are ministers in word and deed. And as Paul said, "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him" (Col 3:17). We are ministers out of thanksgiving for our salvation in Christ.

Word ministries respond to the broken relationship that people have with God and with themselves. Thus evangelism (narrowly defined) and counseling are word ministries that elders lead and that the whole church does.

Deed ministries respond to the broken relationship that people have with each other and the ground. Deed ministries include any ministry that addresses physical and social needs - like for fellowship, friendship, food, water, shelter, transportation, etc. Such deed ministries deacons lead and the whole church does.

Both word and deed ministries must focus first on the congregation and then on the community. If we are not taking care of the Spiritual, psychological, social, and physical needs of our congregation, then we will be much less effective at evangelism. Let me broadly define evangelism as ministering to the Spiritual, psychological, social, and physical needs (needs for Christ) of others (our community and the world) or for a shorter definition ministering the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed to the world. Evangelism is something that elders and deacons lead and that the whole church does.

While there is a difference in emphasis between elders and deacons, both will engage in word evangelism and both will engage in deed evangelism. The words interpret the works. Words without works are just talk, as John said, "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18). And works without words are open to misinterpretation. God creates and interprets all of the good works you will do. In philosophical terms, for Christianity, there are no brute works just as there are no brute facts. The primary misinterpretation is that you are doing good works in order to earn your salvation. We need to offer people God's interpretation. As Paul said,

By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:8-10).

My thoughts have been influenced by many people and books including:

Harvie Conn, Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1982).

Timothy Keller, "Diaconal Training" [audio cd] (WTSBooks, 1997); and Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road, 2d. ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1997).

Labels: brute works, deacons, elders, evangelism, reformed theology, spiritual leadership, thanksgiving

Apparently there has been a debate lately on the question of whether the Reformation is over. I heard Carl Trueman speak eloquently about how it most certainly is not. Let me add the following observations to the debate (though I suspect I am saying nothing especially new and this should complement my earlier post about what it means to be "Reformed"):

1. The Reformation was a recovery of the centrality of Christ. This recovery can never be complete in this life because we constantly have to remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is our Savior and not we ourselves. I recently heard someone make the preposterous claim to be "really Reformed" because they held that God could save those whom He chose to save no matter what religion they professed. This is in desperate need of reformation according to Scripture - Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life and not just because one verse says so but because the entire Bible says so. This missing emphasis on Christ alone is also what sets us apart from most monotheists - mosques and synagogues do not proclaim the divinity of Christ or that He is the way. Grace cannot be separated from Christ.

2. The Reformation was a recovery of the gospel of grace. This recovery can never be complete in this life because we constantly have to remind ourselves that we cannot earn our salvation but that it is a free gift from God. All too often I hear people say that Christianity is all about rules, the people who say this are often conservative Christians themselves and they see this as a good thing. The problem is that we must keep things in their proper place - grace and then thanksgiving. Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for our salvation and if that salvation has been applied to us by the Holy Spirit we should respond with thanksgiving in everything we do. The problem is especially acute when it comes to how the church treats children outside of the covenant community. We assume they should be able to be good, which they can formally, and we demand that kind of obedience instead of sharing the gospel and leading them to obedience from the heart. It is one thing to know this intellectually and another thing altogether to actually do. And part of the problem is the necessity for some formal obedience so that they can even hear the gospel in the first place.

3. The Reformation was a recovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This again can never be complete in this life because we too often find ourselves telling others that they must do what we did in order to be saved rather than presenting the gospel of justification by faith alone. Some want to add to faith some of these things: cultural trappings (regulations on clothing, hair, make-up, no automobiles, no electronics, etc. - all depending on what culture they are trying to preserve), speaking in tongues, good works, responding to an altar call, etc. In other words, you have to do something in addition to faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone for salvation - you cannot be a Christian until you do these things. One of our youth recently said she has not been saved. I asked if she trusted in Christ for her salvation, she said yes. Why the discrepancy? Because too many people in our area believe you must have some kind of religious experience during a hymn that drives you forward for the "altar call." She may well already be a Christian but has been told something else is necessary for her to be a Christian. This is typical.

4. The Reformation was a recovery of the importance of Scripture. This again can never be complete in this life because if it were up to us Scripture would have disappeared long ago. We often believe the latest fads in psychology or other fields to be more important than Scripture in helping others (and I am talking here about even those who hold to the sufficiency of Scripture). We are more likely to read books about Scripture than to read the actual text of Scripture (and skim or skip the quotes included in them). And many conservatives hold to notions about Scripture that come more from their personal biases and from modernism than from Scripture itself. A helpful book in this regard is Inspiration and Incarnation by Peter Enns. If conservatives were to embrace the incarnational analogy this would go a long ways in helping moderates on Scripture. When I tell theological liberals that I believe that Scripture is fully the Word of God and fully the words of its human authors (the incarnational analogy), they have to stop and think because they have always thought it must be one or the other. Many of the moderates are also confused - they believe the Bible is the Word of God (the Spirit even is testifying in them that this is the case) they just see things they would not expect and that shakes their confidence on Scripture being the only rule of life and faith. The problem is that too often conservatives, moderates, and liberals all have the same presuppositions as they approach Scripture - such as, that it be precise like a science textbook, that it be fair and balanced like a history textbook (in theory, but never in reality) rather than ideological, etc. The point is they expect that an ancient book be a modern book rather than going to Scripture alone to discover what it is doing or even hide behind the motto 'Scripture alone' to avoid seeing it in the context of the ancient world and its human authors.

The point is that the solas are always in need of recovery and no church can go without continual Reformation according to Scripture alone and its message of Christ Alone, Grace Alone, and Faith Alone.

Labels: christ, faith, grace, justification, reformation, reformed theology, scripture

What follows are some reflections on the implications of the doctrine of the Trinity - that God is one and God is three (thus I prefer Triunity of God). I may add to this list from time to time, please comment with your suggestions and reflections.

The Doctrine: The Triunity of God. The Application:

1. Everything. Our ultimate presupposition in life, as Christians, is that the God of the Scriptures is God. We do not serve a generic god, we worship a specific God who has revealed His name in Scripture. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the name (singular) of God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the three-fold name). Our God is a personal God, one in essence and three in persons. This is our starting point for everything.

2. How do we relate to other religions? Some Mosques, over the doorway, say Allah is not three. This means that they do not worship the God of Christianity. Modern Jewish synagogues do not accept the Triunity of God because they reject Jesus of Nazareth's claim to divinity. This means they do not worship the God of Christianity. Unitarians, who sometimes consider themselves Christians and sometimes do not, do not believe that God is three persons. This means they do not worship the God of Christianity. And Christians are not tri-theists - they do not worship three gods, as some heretical groups and Muslims claim. Christians worship one God - the Triune God, the God who is one and three. This surely has implications for interfaith dialogue.

3. The three persons of the eternal Triune God display perfect unity and communion/fellowship. Therefore, Christians are united and in communion with one another through Jesus Christ. As Jesus prayed to God the Father, "that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:11).

4. The eternal Triune God displays perfect unity and diversity in roles. It is as God is one (unity) and three (diversity in persons and roles) that we are to be united as the body of Christ and each different Christian (diversity in persons) has different gifts, service, and activities in the kingdom of God. So the doctrine of the Triunity of God should lead us to realize that we will do different things and have different gifts but be one people. For this application you might begin with 1 Corinthians 12:3-6 (and context) - Spirit, Lord, God is Trinitarian reflection.

5. Knowledge of the infinite, incomprehensible God is only possible because He has revealed Himself. Nature reveals God in truth, but not in completeness. We would never come to the doctrine of the Trinity from nature not only because of our total depravity but because there is simply no way we could know that God is one and God is three from nature - special revelation was necessary to tell us this. The Old Testament reveals God in truth, but not in completeness. There are hints of the divinity of Christ and the Spirit in the Old Testament, but we could not build this doctrine from the Old Testament without the New Testament. Much more is clear, including the full name of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in the New Testament. Still God is incomprehensible. He is only knowable because He has revealed Himself to us through faith. The basic application being that we can try to make the incomprehensible (like that for God 1=3) make sense to people (an impossible task - we cannot make the incomprehensible comprehensible), but only those to whom God grants faith will receive this revelation (God makes the incomprehensible knowable). It is worth noting that our knowledge is creaturely knowledge (Christians cannot know exhaustively but can know truly). Remember these things when asked to make a defense of your faith.

Also, from Herman Bavinck, three points on the significance of the doctrine:

A. God is in perfect fullness of life apart from the creation. God is distinct in essence from the creature and creation in general. These two points rule out deism and pantheism respectively. The basic point is to say that the doctrine makes clear to us how God, apart from the universe He created, can be perfect in love, knowledge, and the rest of His attributes. "Apart from the Trinity," Bavinck says, "these attributes are mere names, sounds without connotation, empty concepts" (quoting from the Hendricksen translation The Doctrine of God, 330-331). For example, to explain it in my own way, to say that God is love would be an empty statement before the creation of the universe for God, except that love is an attribute of God shared within the Trinity. Love existed between the persons of the Trinity from eternity because God is love. Therefore, God does not need us to be love.

B. Creation presupposes the Triune God. This is the only way to distinguish from deism and pantheism. God relates to His creation but is separate from creation.

C. Bavinck's third point is that the doctrine of the Trinity is important for practical religion. He says, "Whenever any one rejects God's tri-unity, he destroys the very foundation of Christian belief, and casts aside all of special revelation. The doctrine of the trinity is the sum and substance of Christian faith, the root of all dogmas, the essence of the new covenant" (333). The work of redemption is one divine act with a three-fold distinction: the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Spirit.

These are just a few reflections on the implications and applications we can derive from the doctrine of God's Triunity. Please send me corrections, improvements, additions, comments, etc. I have posted elsewhere the implications of the doctrine of the trinity according to John Flavel.

Labels: bavinck, islam, judaism, reformed theology, trinity, unitarianism

This is a Leap Year....thus the theme of my sermons in 2008 thus far has been that this should be a Leap for Joy for salvation year (like every year since the resurrection of Christ). Reformed Christians should not be the "frozen chosen," as sometimes is said, but the "blissful blessed" (a phrase I coined for one of the sermons in the series). This should be a given since it is so apparent in Scripture. Why then, do the Reformed have a reputation for sitting or standing still? To be sure, we do not want to have emotionalism run amok but we should be excited about salvation in Christ. And we do need to be silent and still sometimes to listen to God, but having heard from Him we cannot help but respond with praise.

If you are interested in listening to some of the sermons in this series, you can find them at http://revmarple.com/joy.

Labels: christian, joy, leap year, reformed theology, salvation, sermon